Greetings and welcome!
First Snow!
The Thursday-Sunday storm brought the first snowflakes to much of the state. Here in Silver Cliff it didn’t happen. Sunday night there were a few tiny flakes mixed in with the mist and drizzle. Monday morning found a light layer of giant goose down type flakes had fallen overnight. We have our firs accumulating snow of the season.
Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB
Greetings and welcome!
Saturday we got up into the 70s. That will probably be the last time that we see the 70 degree mark this year.
Yesterday we only got up into the mid-40s. That big of a change is usually accompanied by a big storm, and we had one of those. Around here it was mostly wind with sustained 20-30 mph winds gusting into the 40s. There were a lot of dead branches and trees down from the wind, but nothing all that unusual. The power flickered here a couple of times, but never went out.
There was some snow on the radar yesterday for far northern Forest Co and the UP from mid-afternoon on. This morning the radar is showing the center of the state getting a little snow, and even showed brief squalls a little south and west of here. I am not sure about the last part though.. The radar showed the snow as close as about McCaslin Mt Campground right on the county line, but when I went to take the garbage out to the road there was nothing but clear blue skies. It is only about 4 miles away I expected to see clouds or something.
The fall color is just about gone after our windy days. The tamarack, oaks, paper birch, and a few other species are still holding leaves, but most of the woods are bare trees again. I can also see into the woods again. In June when the underbrush is full, it is hard to see 100′ into the woods. Now I can see 10x that far.
I have not seen the first snowflakes here yet, but this weekend it seems very likely. We have a storm coming Fri night through Sunday that should at least make the grass white. It it all lines up right we could see an inch or two. We are looking at a high of about 42 for both days with lows around 30. Depending on the time of day we could see rain or snow. This will be the 4th weekend in a row that brought rain.
This is the big Halloween weekend, and just about every bar and trail stop that I passed is having a Halloween party and most of them involve a costume contest and live music. It should be a fun weekend. One of the more interesting entries is from the Caldron Falls Bar..
Halloween Party Punkin Chunkin Contest Live Music
Punkin Chunkin Contest…..”throw the pumpkin the farthest” starts at 3:30 pm please pre register ,the cost is $10.00, Eddy Munster Band plays at 7pm costume contest and prizes at 9pm.
For my whitewater paddling friends.. the Peshtigo River still has not reached the zero mark since ice-out. It looks like it has settled down into a comfortable base flow of about +4″ and about 400cfs. If the watershed freezes that saturated we will have a lot to look forward to for spring rafting.
Here is my latest winter prediction from last night on the Big Snow Page..
Seasonal Outlook…
I continue to be very optimistic about this winter. It has been a very unusual year in weather and I don’t think that will change in the next 6 weeks. I am expecting a lot of snow, more than a few storms that are mostly rain, and both very warm and very cold stretches. While I don’t expect our 9″ of rain in June to translate to nine feet of snow in January, I am hoping for the above normal precipitation trend to continue.
One recurring thought is that I don’t remember the last time that we had one of those double whammy low pressure systems that brought us a 16+ inch snowstorm and high winds. I expect to see that storm happen at least once this year.
I do have some concerns that it won’t be all honey and roses. The 8.6 degrees above normal for October is a little scary. If that happened in January, hooray, I don’t like that -30º stuff anyway. However, in February or March it would be bad timing for us.
I have my concerns, but overall my outlook for a good snowmobiling season is very positive.
Time to make the donuts. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB
Greetings and welcome!
There is massive carnage at my house this morning. The lady beetles came out this week and I was ready for them. I use this stuff that you mix up in a pump up sprayer. I hit the windows and doors inside and out, around the air conditioners, around the firewood hatch, and then I did the outside walls. I don’t have a single one inside but the outside is littered with carcasses. It works great on other creepy crawlies too, and lasts for months.
The storm last weekend and the wind this week have taken a lot of the fall color down. There is still a lot out there, but there are a lot of bare trees. The main players now are the oaks and tamaracks, with some beech and cottonwood hanging on. Here are some pictures from yesterday on Knowles Creek Rd.
Here is the only event that I have for this weekend, so far..
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Oct. 21 |
The weather for the weekend looks ok with a chance for rain Saturday night into Sunday. There is a slight chance of rain Saturday according to the NWS forecast, and I am on board with that. The conditions might be there for the rain to come in the afternoon. They have temperatures forecast to be 75 Friday, 68 Saturday, and 61 Sunday.
That having been said, the last two weekends looked ok on Thursday too, and ended up as wash-outs.
You will want to really watch out for deer on the roads, especially from sunset on into the night. The doe deer are plentiful on the roads and apparently are pretty stubborn about staying there. I had two yesterday near McCaslin Mountain that just wouldn’t move. One in each lane, two feet away from my car as I am laying on the horn. It wasn’t until they were going to get tipped over by the bumper that they decided to move. Thinking about it this morning, I could have just gotten out the camera and made them disappear.
At any rate, that is not the first time that it happened this week. I don’t know why they are so stubborn about staying in the road, but I am ready to mount the plow on the truck and start driving that so that I don’t wreck the car.
It looks like there is a big change coming in the weather about the middle of next week. Our 70s will be a distant memory, and our first snow could come about the 31st with a pretty good storm. Ready for that? Me neither. I had better get going..
Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB
Greetings and welcome!
I took a ride to Crivitz today and got a look at the fall colors. There are some bare trees but there were a lot of color and scenic views too. Some of the late colors are starting to show. The first one that comes to mind are the tamaracks, but some oaks and soft hardwoods are turning as well. Some areas are past peak, others are putting on a great show. It isn’t over yet.
We have a fast moving storm coming in for the weekend. The current timing in the forecast is about as good as it can be with the rain starting after dark Saturday and ending fairly early Sunday morning. Can we believe it?
In events this weekend we have the Crooked Lake Octoberfest Saturday.
There is a haunted house on Moonshine Hill Rd and Camp 5 Road.
I haven’t been down 141 in a while but I would assume that the corn maze and pumpkin patch on Nejedlo Rd (Just south of Wausaukee) just west of 141 is still going.
For snowmobilers the Snowmobile USA Show is in West Allis this weekend.
The Peshtigo River continues to be way above normal. It hit +12” this week and is back down to about a +7”. Zero is the normal summer flow, and the average for today is about a -2”. The watershed must be really saturated to get flows like that.
The deer are abundant along the roads this week. There were at least three in the ditch dead between here and crivitz. Last night when I was driving I saw a dozen plus deer in a 14 mile ride, and they were not interested in moving. Keep a sharp eye out for deer when you are driving.
That is it for tonight. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB